WSGC Newsletter for Educators

Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium's electronic newsletter for teachers provides curriculum ideas, Internet links and other resources to help you better meet the Washington EALRs and the National Science Education Standards.

Project MERCCURI (Microbial Ecology Research Combining Citizen and University Researchers on ISS) is a citizen science project that will facilitate the study of how microbes in buildings on Earth compare to those found on the International Space Station.

Registered participants will use a sample kit with a cotton swab to take samples from surface areas in a prescribed manner. These samples will then be analyzed at UC Davis for identification through DNA sequencing. Forty select samples will be launched into space on the Space X rocket on September 30, 2013 and delivered to the astronauts on the International Space Station.

The Educator Resource Repository, operated by the NASA Educators Online Network and the Aerospace Education Services Project, provides teachers with free lesson plans and other resources. The database may be searched by topic and grade level. To access the repository, visit

NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their names online for a DVD to be carried aboard a NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere.

Three poets will also get the chance to include their haiku, specifically written for the occasion — and everybody who submits something will have their name included on the DVD.The deadline for all submissions is July 1. To learn more, go to